The facility collects methane gas produced from decomposing waste at the Fleet Street landfill in Regina and uses it to generate one megawatt of power — enough to power 1,000 homes.

The electricity from this facility is then sold and sent to SaskPower's provincial electrical grid.

"From December to January, we saw three, new peak usages here in province," said Howard Matthews, vice president of power production at SaskPower. "The province continues to grow, so an extra megawatt of cleaner burning energy is always welcome."

Matthews added that typically Saskatchewan consumes about 3000 megawatts of energy at any one time.

A diagram of the Landfill Gas to Energy facility. (Kirk Fraser/CBC)

"This is a sustainable future for us, and it's a megawatt of electricity that otherwise, that gas, would've gone to waste," said Matthews.

Matthews said technology like this is important for SaskPower in achieving it's goal of 50 per cent renewable electricity generation by 2030.

The capital cost of the project was just under $5 million and it is expected to generate approximately $1 million in revenue for the city each year.

"We're actually getting a revenue source for the city, and we're also doing some work for the environment as well. Those are two really important policy issues for us," said Mayor Michael Fougere.

The city said the facility will reduce greenhouse gas emissions by about 30,000 tonnes per year. That's the equivalent of taking 8,000 cars off the road.

Part of the generator unit at the Landfill Gas to Energy Facility in Regina. (Kirk Fraser/CBC)